Matthews asserted that Clinton got Register endorsement "thanks to her husband's lobbying with its female editors and publisher"

On the December 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews said of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), "She may have gotten The Des Moines Register's endorsement the other day, thanks to her husband's lobbying with its female editors and publisher, but voters have spotted the dagger, and they don't like what it looks like." Matthews went on to say, "Hillary's loyal lieutenants are ready to scratch the eyes out of the opposition right now."

A December 15 New York Times article reported that "[t]he other day ... former President Bill Clinton held forth on a sofa in the publisher's suite at The Des Moines Register, explaining why he believed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should win the newspaper's coveted endorsement." The Times further reported: "Presidential candidates of both parties have long dutifully appeared before the editorial board of The Register, Iowa's most influential newspaper. But this year the Democrats, particularly Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barack Obama, have gone to extraordinary lengths to win over the publisher, the editor and the editorial page editor ahead of endorsements."

On December 15, the Register endorsed Clinton as the Democratic nominee in the 2008 Iowa caucuses. The Register wrote that the "editorial board members who participated in the endorsement process were: Laura Hollingsworth, publisher; Carolyn Washburn, editor; Carol Hunter, editorial page editor; Linda Lantor Fandel, deputy editorial page editor; Rox Laird, editorial writer; and Andie Dominick, editorial writer." (According to their Register biographies, Laird is a male and Dominick is a female.)

From the 7 p.m. ET December 17 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: The biggest news of this week, it's all weekend -- it's all we've been talking about, it went again this morning. The worst week of last week was Hillary Clinton. She may have gotten The Des Moines Register's endorsement the other day, thanks to her husband's lobbying with its female editors and publisher, but voters have spotted the dagger, and they don't like what it looks like. Hillary's loyal lieutenants are ready to scratch the eyes out of the opposition right now.

—J.H.